Trader’s Narrative

By Elliott Wave International

It’s one of the first rules in the book of mainstream economic wisdom: a country’s economy is the thermometer which “reads” its stock market’s temperature. If financial conditions are heating up, stocks rise; if they are cooling down, stocks fall. Were it so simple — millionaires wouldn’t make up a measly .15% of the global population.

Obviously, there’s a major flaw with this logic; namely, it isn’t true. Time and again, stock prices smolder to near boiling even as economic growth chills to the bone. (The opposite also holds: Stock prices cool down even as the economy is on fire.)

Take, for instance, Germany’s main stock index, the DAX 30. On August 13, Europe’s number one economy reported a .3% rise in gross domestic product (GDP) — Germany’s first quarter of growth since January 2008. Soon after, the DAX began to rally and finished the day at a fresh, ten-month high.

In no time at all, every financial media outlet from Wall Street to la-la land had their story: “Germany’s DAX rose nearly 1% on the GDP data. The big picture will be one of ongoing gradual recovery through 2010.” (LA Times)

One problem: the DAX’s bullish flame has been burning since the index landed at a two-year low on March 9, 2009. YET — the economic data over those six months has been about as “hot” as the Arctic Circle. Here, the following news stories from the time say plenty:

• March 24, Wall Street Journal: “There’s a slew of evidence that Germany is in an economic freefall: A 19% drop in industrial output, a 23% decline in exports, a 35% drop in new manufacturing orders, and on. The numbers we’re seeing are just mind-boggling.”

(FreeWeek Kicks Off With Germany: On September 16, EWI launched its first-ever FreeWeek featuring its youngest subscriber services: European Short Term Update and Asian-Pacific Short Term Update. Take advantage of this amazing opportunity. Click HERE to sign on and get invaluable insight into Europe’s #1 market.)

• April 30, New York Times reveals a 17% year-over-year decline in Germany’s exports and writes, “With 47% of its GDP generated by exports, Germany would suffer a severe contraction in its economy.”
• May 16, Wall Street Journal: “In the fourth-quarter 2009, Germany’s GDP plunged 3.5%; its worst performance in nearly four decades.”
• May 17: Tens of thousands of German workers march through downtown Berlin to express their anxiety over the alarming increase in unemployment: at 7.7%.
• June 29 Associated Press: Germany’s GDP has now fallen by nearly 7% in the past four quarters with widespread expectations for a 5.5% to 6% contraction by the years end.
• July 3 WSJ: “Germany’s own recession is the deepest of any major economy in the world, apart from Japan.”
• September 8 speech by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel: “We are in the worst economic crisis that the Federal Republic of Germany has experienced in 60 years.”

You get the picture: During the DAX’s entire six-month long winning streak, Germany’s economic figures have been bleaker than bleak. The mainstream correlation was broken in its box along with any preemptive opportunity to position for the uptrend.

That, however, was NOT the case for EWI’s European Financial Forecast. Here, the following archive of our analysis shows the extent to which objective analysis of the market’s internal measures keeps traders ahead of the biggest moves:

March 2009 European Financial Forecast (release date: February 25):

“We favor the fourth-wave contracting triangle interpretation for the DAX. The DAX broke through a solid support shelf at 4014 this week so selling pressure could intensify before we see a notable rally.” The end of the wave v decline should come near 3440.

March 6 European Short Term Update (ESTU):

“The DAX situation is similar to the entire region. We believe that the market is closing in on a low; perhaps it’s a week away from finding a decent bottom.”
On March 9, the index did indeed “find” its bottom at 3588.

March 13 ESTU:

“We must entertain the possibility that the low earlier this week may hold for a time, weeks or months, and the risk-reward equation is not as heavily favorable for the bears.”

So, where will Germany’s DAX be headed next? Find out at the unbeatable price of $0.00. No, that’s not a typo; it’s how much it will cost you to read objective insight, view original price charts, and receive trend-breaking, and making details about Germany’s DAX for a full seven days. These are just few of the benefits of EWI’s first-ever FreeWeek featuring European Short Term Update, and its Asian-Pacific counterpart.

FreeWeek continues from September 16 through September 23. Get all the details on how to participate in this amazing offer today.

Robert Prechter, Chartered Market Technician, is the world’s foremost expert on and proponent of the deflationary scenario. Prechter is the founder and CEO of Elliott Wave International, author of Wall Street best-sellers Conquer the Crash and Elliott Wave Principle and editor of The Elliott Wave Theorist monthly market letter since 1979.

Don’t Miss This Opportunity!
Throw your hat in the ring for the latest giveaway courtesy of the
Trader’s Business Plan

Man does not live by bread alone.

And neither is the US stock market the only market out there.

But we usually tend to act as if it was the only one that counts. One of the many lessons I learned from Weinstein’s excellent book: Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, is to monitor global indexes. Cheesy title, but excellent book - if you don’t have it, get it today.

This takes on extra importance at important inflection points - which are difficult to spot in the moment, as you’ve no doubt noticed. While the US market is probably the most important in the world, due to the interconnectedness of our world, it can not decouple from the rest. So by comparing it to the others, we can gain insight into bull and bear markets.

So with that in mind, below is a (not so random) walk through the world’s major stock markets. First, let’s take a look at the European exchanges, then Toronto and the South American Indexes and finally, Asia.

Since looking at so many charts can be dizzying, I’ll keep tabs on a couple of specific technical criteria. For example, the slope of the moving averages as well as whether price is uptrending or downtrending (making a higher high and a lower high or vice versa).

FTSE (England)

• made a new low in March 2009 (still downtrending)
• yet to break above January 2009 highs
• slope of 200 day moving average is down
• 50 day moving average is below price & climbing

CAC 40 (France)

• made a new low in March 2009 (still downtrending)
• yet to break above January 2009 highs
• slope of 200 day moving average is down
• 50 day moving average is below price & climbing

Continue reading ‘A Walk Through World Stock Markets’

There is a very interesting study coming out in The Journal of Finance that looks at the connection between wins and losses in the World Cup and the respective stock markets of the countries involved.

Authored by economists Edmans, Garcia and Norli, the paper does some serious number crunching to show that losses in the world cup translate into stock market declines the next trading day. And as you would expect, the more that is at stake, the larger the decline that the loss causes:

As noted in the graph above, the effect of wins and losses is not the same magnitude. Human nature being what it is, disappointment is more bitter than the sweetest victory.

So I guess we now have the “World Cup Effect” to add to our basket of behavioral finance anomalies. The choice of the world cup is very wise as it is the most widely played, watched and followed sports event on earth - even larger than the olympics. Other sports just don’t evoke the same visceral reaction:

Source: Canadian Business magazine.

So does this mean with the elimination of Germany we short the DAX and go long the Mibtel? What about Brazil’s game against France? Long CAC and short Bovespa? The more pressing question for me is where in the world was the Brazilian defense during that game? Sheesh.